An Alan Hannah Wedding Dress and Pretty Birdcage Veil for a House For An Art Lover Wedding

An Alan Hannah Wedding Dress and Pretty Birdcage Veil for a House For An Art Lover Wedding was last modified: September 23rd, 2014 by Annabel

Good morning my friends. I really do hope you've had the loveliest of weekends, kicking back with your loved ones. I tried something new yesterday evening and shared this personal post full of photographs from the office I'm working on! Do take a look if you haven't already – I'd love your thoughts.

"I originally had my heart set on a slinky Jenny Packham style number, but with a bit of a tummy and an aversion to gyms and control underwear I quickly decided it probably wasn’t the best idea! With its a-line skirt my dress was the opposite of that, but the minute I put it on I fell in love. I loved the simplicity of it, and the fact it was beautifully made in the most gorgeous fabric. I loved the beading around the neckline, and particularly the beautiful v-shape at the back.

I also really appreciated the fact that it was designed and made in the UK. I know it was the right dress, because just nine months on I can’t really remember anything else that I tried on!"

"Because the neckline of the dress had so much detail I hadn’t found a necklace I was happy wearing with it until the morning of the wedding when I spotted it around the neck of my best friend and bridesmaid Joan! The beautiful white gold and diamond pendant (which was given to her by her husband as a present for their wedding) became my something borrowed.

"My faux fur jacket was from Monsoon and I wore it with a 1950s brooch I’d found at a stall at Sloans Market in Glasgow."

"We didn’t have a theme for the wedding (whenever I was asked I always said the theme was ‘getting married’). Every decision on styling was inspired by our beautiful venue which was built in the 1990s to a design that the famous Glasgow architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh submitted to a competition in 1901.

Mackintosh’s style was Art Nouveau, but we didn’t stick rigidly to that, or to that period in which it was designed. Instead we were guided by what we thought would complement the wonderful backdrop. There was a bit of art deco, and a bit of the 1920's, 30's and 40's. I think we ended up with a wonderful mish-mash of vintagey loveliness!"

"The bridesmaid dresses were made by the wonderfully talented Wendy of Flossy and Dossy. They were one of my favourite things about the wedding, and one of the most commented upon. When I was having problems with the alterations of my own dress my back up plan was to wear the teal bridesmaid dress! I spent ages researching dress styles from the early twentieth century and sticking ones I liked up in Pinterest.

I had a chat with Wendy about what I liked about the various styles and she came up with a sketch that was exactly what I wanted. The colours I chose were inspired by the beautiful stained glass panels on the doors inside House for an Art Lover."

"Our florist was the incredibly talented Sophie of I Heart Flowers. I met her at a Glasgow Wedding Collective fair just after we were engaged and was blown away by her beautiful portfolio. I loved the way she used bright colours and unusual bits and bobs in her arrangements. Since the wedding was in January I wanted something wintery looking with berries and frosty looking foliage like eucalyptus plus lots of my favourite colour – purple! We went for seasonal flowers as far as is possible in January hence the beautiful anemones, ranunculus, amaryllis and ornamental cabbage.

She did the bouquets, buttonholes, a wand for the flower girl and two gorgeous arrangements in vases for the ceremony, which were then moved into the dining room and then downstairs for the evening reception."

"Our cake was made by the Little Cake Parlour in Glasgow (our local cake shop) using fresh, organic ingredients. The design was inspired by a visit to the Hill House in Helensburgh which was another Rennie Mackintosh commission. The stripes and squares and roses on the cake are based on the wallpaper design in the drawing room there! We decided that since we were getting married so soon after Christmas that everyone would be sick of fruit cake, so we had a layer of chocolate fudge cake, a layer of lemon drizzle and a layer of cherry and amaretto. It was beautifully made and tasted delicious. We’re just sad it’s all gone!"

"We found out about Zoë Campbell via a styled shoot that she’d done at House for an Art Lover which was featured on Love My Dress (that’s also how we found Flossy and Dossy the dress designer, and Sophie the florist was also involved).

We are so pleased that we picked Zoë to do our wedding photos. When we first met her over coffee before we booked her, we both knew very quickly that we’d be really happy to have her around on our wedding day – she was lovely and friendly and had a really positive approach. The whole process of working with Zoë was an absolute joy, and we were delighted with the outcome. The images she created are brilliant – they really capture the warmth and loveliness of the day. They also include so many of the beautiful features of the venue and little details of what happened on the day that brought back many happy memories as we look through them."

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"My bracelet belonged to my lovely gran who passed away nine years ago. She some beautiful 1950's costume jewellery that she used to wear to the Fire Service Balls that she attended with my Grandad. She left the jewellery to my mum, who gave me this to wear on my wedding day."

"Although I’d lived within three miles of House for an Art Lover for eleven years I’d never visited it. Iain had been once before when a gospel choir he used to sing in had performed at someone’s wedding. Iain thought it was beautiful and said we should go see it. He was right – the interiors are so beautiful that they took my breath away the minute I walked through the door. We also loved the idea that it existed to celebrate the cultural heritage of Glasgow – the city where we’d met, fallen in love and made our home. It didn’t quite fit all our criteria (it wasn’t quite big enough to fit everyone we’d imagined inviting to the evening reception) but we quickly decided to book it and make it work! We’re so glad that we did!"

"We thought the ceremony flowr arrangements by I Heart Flowerswere absolutely perfect for the venue with beautiful tall branches she’d included for structure really fitting in with the art nouveau surroundings. I think Sophie did an amazing job, and once the bouquets had arrived at my mum’s house in the morning I couldn’t help myself from going back again and again to admire them! (The venue provided simple long-stemmed dusky lilac roses for the dinner tables.)"

"We met when we worked together in a Glasgow charity that supports refugees. It was a challenging place to work, but it had a busy social scene and we spent a lot of time along our work friends in various Glasgow bars putting the world to rights. We were friends for a long time before we got together, but when did it felt so right. We’d been together for five years before we got engaged. We decided to get married during a romantic weekend away at a lovely little hotel called Monachyle Mhor. We got engaged in March, booked the venue in May and got married in January.

Iain wore a kilt passed down from his father, who had worn it on his wedding day 43 years before. It is in the family tartan – hunting Chisholm. (His dad who lives in Yorkshire decided he had to wear the family tartan too and managed to source a hire kilt from a shop in Inverness, just 400 miles from his home!)"

"My dear Dad accompanied me down the aisle, because it was important to me to have his support at such a special moment. However, I didn’t like to think of it as being ‘given away’ because I’ve lived independently of my parents for more than ten years.I walked down the aisle to Highland Cathedral, which was played on the bagpipes by my Uncle Billy. When I asked him to play at the wedding he asked which song I’d like to walk down the aisle to. I said ‘We thought maybe Highland Cathedral’; he said ‘It’s such a cliché’; I said ‘Can you suggest something better?’; he said ‘No, it’s a cliché for a reason – it’s perfect!’"

"We had a humanist ceremony which is legally binding in Scotland – yeah!!! So we had lots of lovely personal bits to our ceremony including the lighting of unity candles (held in a lovely art nouveau candelabra that we found on ebay), a sing-a-long to Let There Be Love and a ‘warming’ of our rings where they were passed around all the guests before we exchanged them. We also wrote our own vows, but they feel too personal to share!"

We had three readings:1. Never Marry but for Love, by William Penn, read by Iain’s sister Al.2. Starlings by Guy Garvey (the Elbow Song), read by Iain’s friend Julian.3. The Places You’ll Go by Dr Seuss, read by our friend Louise

The ceremony closed with a traditional blessing that our celebrant read out and our guests repeated back each line:May the road rise up to meet you, May the wind be always at your back, May the sun shine warm upon your face, The rains fall soft upon your fields. And until we meet again, May your days be good and long upon the earth."

"Although I’d lived within three miles of House for an Art Lover for eleven years I’d never visited it. Iain had been once before when a gospel choir he used to sing in had performed at someone’s wedding. Iain thought it was beautiful and said we should go see it. He was right – the interiors are so beautiful that they took my breath away the minute I walked through the door. We also loved the idea that it existed to celebrate the cultural heritage of Glasgow – the city where we’d met, fallen in love and made our home.

It didn’t quite fit all our criteria (it wasn’t quite big enough to fit everyone we’d imagined inviting to the evening reception) but we quickly decided to book it and make it work! We’re so glad that we did!"

"The interior of the venue is just so beautiful, so it didn’t really didn’t need anything else in terms of decor – we did have a ‘wedding wishes’ tree which we made the week before the wedding using some illuminated twigs, a vase I’ve had for years and some tinfoil – I thought it was very effective! We also made luggage tags to hang on the tree with people’s messages and decorated them with a stamp we found in a craft shop. We displayed photographs from our parents’ and grandparents’ weddings on the table by the tree. (My parents’ wedding very obviously took place in the 1970s, but a some people commented that Iain’s parents photo from the 1960s looked like it had been taken last year – Iain’s mum was delighted!)"

Words of Wedded Wisdom…

"When you’re planning your wedding be realistic about what you can achieve in the time you have. Share tasks between you, and delegate to friends and family where you can. Most of all enjoy the process and try not to stress out too much about the more difficult aspects like deciding on the guest list.When it comes to the morning of the big day, surround yourself with people you, love and relax and enjoy yourself.

I wish we’d had a rehearsal so the little people involved in the wedding party were a bit more confident about everything. We intended to do it but only had a small window of time for it to happen in because our page boy – Iain’s nephew Johnny – arrived in Scotland just two days before the wedding and we ran out of time to fit one in!

Remember to eat something too (I forgot and it took me a while to realise I was feeling unwell because I was hungry!). Once everything’s underway take time to pause and take it all in. All the hard work is over and you and your new husband can just enjoy the first day of the rest of your lives together!"

What a delightful way to start the day – congratulations Mhoraig and Iain and thank you so very much for sharing your day with us all. Huge thanks too to Zoë Campbell for sharing her imagery with us – I'm super thrilled that you discovered Zoë through Love My Dress, Mhoraig!

Yippeee! Thank you so much for featuring Mhoraig and Iain’s wedding Annabel Lovely Mhoraig…. I loved every minute photographing your wedding and getting to know you and Iain was an absolute delight. You’re both such lovely, genuine, happy people and I wish you all the love and happiness in the world x

Wow! So excited to see this beautiful wedding featured today! Thanks Annabel! It was such a pleasure to work on the flowers with Mhoraig – I especially loved the colour scheme, which came out so well in all the details, particularly those gorgeous Flossy and Dossy dresses! As always Zoe’s photographs are beautiful too! Xxxx

It’s so lovely to have our wedding featured on my favourite wedding blog. Thank you so much Annabel One of my favourite bits of the whole planning process was getting to work with all the lovely creative people whose work is showcased above. Massive thanks to them all, and especially to Zoe (and Zoe) for capturing it all so beautifully! Thank you also to everyone here for your lovely comments xxx